Rental prices for top-end luxury properties outside Moscow have remained mostly static in 2009, realtors said, capped at about $70,000. In 2007, some extreme rates were as high as $100,000 per month.

“People want to get out to the fresh air and the countryside surroundings. It’s about finding the healthiest, yet most comfortable living for those who can afford it — particularly for their children,” said Marina Markarova, managing partner at Mayfair Properties, a luxury realty specialist based in Moscow.
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A popular and growing trend among Muscovites with sufficient disposable income is to rent out a sizeable property just outside the boundaries of the capital for several months, if not longer — often during the winter months. A number of firms in and around Moscow offer agency services to prospective tenants to help with the locating and letting of high quality and, at times, extravagant houses outside the city.
It goes without saying that in Russia, people like to have homes to retreat to beyond the confines of the metropolis. The dacha tradition is one of the very cornerstones of Russian culture even today, as thousands flock out of Moscow and other large cities every weekend, especially during the summer heat. But this newer trend, albeit something basically for the wealthy, is more an imitation of the aristocratic mansion retreat than the classic rustic Russian experience. What is more, during winter it sees people renting for longer periods than just the few days over the New Year or Orthodox Christmas.
The ‘ecological factor’ is very important for a lot of tenants too: many richer Russian families like to reach the cleaner air and more natural surroundings of out-of-town locations, while remaining within a stone’s throw of the city. “Plenty of people don’t look any further than 15 kilometers from the MKAD [Moscow’s ring road],” explained Yekaterina Batynkova, managing director of specialist real estate agency Usadba, part of the MIEL group. “But they want to be able to walk in the fresh air and let their children enjoy unpolluted playgrounds.”
Yet while this escape from the city rush and its accompanying grime offers potentially cleaner and greener surroundings, it can come at the expense of some freedoms. Many of the houses are within settlements and nestled close to one another — usually 400 to 900 square-meter houses on an average of between 1,500 and 3,000 square meters’ worth of land, Mayfair Properties estimated. Meanwhile, security regulations along certain of the popular highways, such as the Rublyovskoye Shosse, running out of Moscow to the west, prevent people from wandering into neighboring woodland or hunting enthusiasts from taking off in search of local prey.
Luxury letting firms around Moscow variously described how these wealthy tenants would take on a lease for elite-class houses for at least several months and sometimes up to or beyond a year. “The longer they rent, the better the deal is in terms of value for money,” Markarova remarked. “In essence, anything under three months is unusual — people generally go for between that and a year. Three days, for example, would be very expensive,” she said. Of course, prices depend not just on the length of occupancy, but also heavily on the individual specifications: many go for a pool or tennis court, while the distance from the MKAD is an obvious factor.
Rental prices leapt during 2008 by 20 to 30 percent, Markarova said, while 2009 has not yet seen a rise in prices on top-end out-of-town lettings; indeed the first half of the year saw a drop in the cost of renting such properties, as most areas of the real estate market were curbed by a lack of spending in the economy as a whole and a drop in consumer confidence. Batynkova confirmed this, explaining how prices across the entire Moscow real estate rental market had fallen by 30 to 40 percent (although not always advertised as having dropped) and admitted that houses such as those leased by Usadba were “an additional feature” in most people’s lives. “People try to save money,” she said, referring to the effect of the crisis on Usadba’s winter rentals. “Now, prices will rise again, although many people will still be cautious,” she predicted.
Prices falling on out-of-town rentals may well have made a difference to demand in the sector, said Markarova. When compared with sales in the same sphere, there has been less of a drop-off in transactions. “People wanted to stop and wait in terms of either selling or making a purchase,” she said. “Lettings, while also down, did not fall as hard as their sales equivalents.”
In addition, there is a side to the out-of-town rental market that is not detectable to the public observer. A number of closed transactions on properties take place, whereby the house in question is not advertised. A lessor will discreetly contact the agent, who in turn will contact potential tenants on the quiet. “We have ‘closed’ properties — they are available only for our special clients, although the financial benefits as usual are bigger from the sales department,” Markarova said. “But it’s not necessarily the most expensive properties that get let out in private,” Batynkova remarked, “so you can’t say that there is a separate, exclusively ‘closed’ market — rather individual clients with particular preferences.”